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In australia, how many people who live in metro areas holiday in regional areas
While there is no specific data publicly available on how many people from cities alone travel to rural areas for holidays, there is data on how many people in the population of Australia travel to rural areas on a yearly basis. By knowing what percent of the population lives in cities, it is possible to calculate an estimate of the percent that traveled from metro to rural areas. Data ranging back from 1999 up to 2017 is publicly available, and will be reported below, along with statistics on percentages of the population that make these travels. Information was gathered for the following categories: day trips for holidays and overnight trips for holidays.
Important Terminology
The following terms are from Tourism Research Australia, and are vital to understanding the data below:
Overnight Travel — "Involves a stay away from home of at least one night, at a place at least 40 kilometers from home"
Day Visitors — "Those who travel for a round trip distance of at least 50 kilometers, are away from home for at least four hours and do not spend a night away from home"
Total Domestic Yearly Travel
By the end of September 2017, Australia had a total of 99.6 million residents travel to other parts of the country for holiday, VFR, business, and other purposes. Acknowledging that by 2016, 89.55% of the population lived in urban areas, then we can assume that 89.55% of the trips taken were by people in cities. This means that,
[99,600,000 residents that traveled]*[89.55% from urban locations] = 89,191,800 total residents took trips from urban areas to other locations within Australia
Day and Overnight Holiday Trips
The following data supports the total day and overnight trips for holiday from 1999 up to 2017. This information is based on the destination of travel, not origin, and was published by the end of June for each year. Metropolitan destinations have been excluded from the data and totals, so as to only focus on regional areas of travel. Again, by assuming that 89.55% of the population of Australia lives in metro areas, then we can assume that 89.55% of the trips below were from people in cities, to rural areas.
The following calculation will be performed for each year below in order to calculate how many people from cities traveled to regional areas per year:
[# of trips per year for holiday]*[% of population that lives in metro areas] = [% of population from metro areas that traveled to rural areas for holiday]
2000: 46,355,000 * 89.55% = 41,510,902
2001: 42,373,000 * 89.55% = 37,945,021
2002: 41,298,000 * 89.55% = 36,982,359
2003: 40,994,000 * 89.55% = 36,710,127
2004: 38,340,000 * 89.55% = 34,333,470
2005: 39,538,000 * 89.55% = 35,406,279
2006: 38,313,000 * 89.55% = 34,309,291
2007: 39,701,000 * 89.55% = 35,552,245
2008: 39,974,000 * 89.55% = 35,796,717
2009: 40,925,000 * 89.55% = 36,648,337
2010: 42,180,000 * 89.55% = 37,772,190
2011: 39,637,000 * 89.55% = 35,494,933
2012: 42,617,000 * 89.55% = 38,163,523
2013: 42,214,000 * 89.55% = 37,802,637
2014: 42,357,000 * 89.55% = 37,930,693
2015: 47,133,000 * 89.55% = 42,207,601
2016: 50,848,000 * 89.55% = 45,534,384
2017: 51,565,000 * 89.55% = 46,176,457
1999: 28,743,000 * 89.55% = 25,739,356
2000: 28,102,000 * 89.55% = 25,165,341
2001: 27,894,000 * 89.55% = 24,979,077
2002: 27,785,000 * 89.55% = 24,881,467
2003: 27,986,000 * 89.55% = 25,061,463
2004: 27,872,000 * 89.55% = 24,959,376
2005: 26,992,000 * 89.55% = 24,171,336
2006: 26,365,000 * 89.55% = 23,609,857
2007: 26,851,000 * 89.55% = 24,045,070
2008: 27,421,000 * 89.55% = 24,555,505
2009: 25,415,000 * 89.55% = 22,759,132
2010: 25,551,000 * 89.55% = 22,880,920
2011: 25,599,000 * 89.55% = 22,923,904
2012: 25,840,000 * 89.55% = 23,139,720
2013: 26,814,000 * 89.55% = 24,011,937
2014: 28,197,000 * 89.55% = 25,250,413
2015: 28,795,000 * 89.55% = 25,785,922
2016: 30,758,000 * 89.55% = 27,543,789
2017: 31,245,000 * 89.55% = 27,979,897
Note that the number of trips has increased slightly over the years, and is continuing to increase. Of the total 88.9 million overnight trips in 2016 by Australian residents, it can be calculated that,
[88,900,000 overnight trips in 2016] * [89.55% of population living in metro areas] = 79,609,950 trips were made by people from metro areas in 2016.
Furthermore, if 45,534,384 of the overnight trips in 2016 were made by people from cities to rural areas, then,
[45,534,384 overnight trips from metro to rural areas in 2016] / [79,609,950 total overnight trips in 2016] * [100%] = 57.2% of overnight trips in 2016 were from citizens living in cities, and traveling to regional areas.
By the end of September 2017, it was recorded that by the end of the year, there were approximately 38,319,000 overnight holiday trips. This means that,
[38,319,000 total overnight holiday trips] * [89.55% of population living in metro areas] = 34,314,664 trips to regional areas were made by people from cities in Australia by the end of September 2017.
Because this figure does not include the remainder of 2017, it would not be accurate to calculate a percent for the overnight trips for holidays in 2017 from cities to rural areas.
Conclusion
By researching what percentage of Australia's population lives in metropolitan areas, it was possible to calculate the percentage that made the trips for holiday from metro to rural areas. Although these are just estimates, it is important to note that these number are rising steadily. Overnight trips are more popular than day trips for every year recorded. Due to the fact that the majority of the population of Australia lives in metropolitan areas, the total trips for holiday account for a large percent from metro to rural areas.